Storyboard #2 (Final storyboard idea)

My group and I are changing our plot completely because of the representation of female teenagers in our last attempt was highly inaccurate. We want to link the characters we use as best as we can to their age and gender. To do this we thought about the two types of female teenagers usually stereotyped and then thought about our target audience. We chose the more vulnerable teenage girl stereotype as we felt we could make this would work better. I thought that this stereotype would work well as we could easily show them talking and doing stereotypical 'girly things' such as: painting nails, pillow fights, talking about boys, watching movies, laughing, etc. This would emphasis how vulnerable they are as they're unaware of their surroundings.

Film Opening Idea #2

We looked back at the very beginning of our notes about what type of horror movie we would be focusing on. In our last idea we were aiming for a more mysterious, on-the-edge-of-your-seat type horror. Our idea for making the opening more scary was to try and make it relate more to the audience. This would be by showing a murder or stalker etc. These things happen in real life, whereas a doll is completely fiction and doesn't relate. This is how we came up with the idea of including a stalker who spy's on the two girls as they 'hang out' in the park and go back to their house. 

As a group, discussed about how teenage girls are be shown in society. We came up with the fact that they're either the vulnerable or rebellious type. The vulnerable type of character would be shown by laughter/ giggling, oblivious to their surroundings, etc. The rebellious type would be shown by mood swings, lash outs, smoking, drugs, use of language (not caring) etc. 

As a group we came up with the fact that vulnerable teenage girls would be more easy to target and can relate more to viewers. On the other hand, rebellious teenage girls may put themselves in more danger, soon to have the tables turn against them.

We decided to use the more vulnerable stereotype for teenage girls as they can over exaggerate and go off in their own mind wave, eg. if something happens they think it's the end of the world.

Back to the drawing board

My group and I have had some critical feedback for the clips we've put together for our final film opening. Unfortunately, we were told that the characters included look too old for the plot and don't show the real innocence of a child. We tried to see if we could overcome this problem but we couldn't think or find two girls that fit the description we wanted.
This meant that we had to use different ideas to think up another storyboard for a different plot and start from scratch.

Soundtrack

My group and I were discussing what we could use for the soundtrack of our film opening. We wanted it to link in with the mysterious side but have it innocent at the same time, just like a child.
We thought about having slow acoustic guitar or piano playing in a minor tone in the background almost unnoticed to give it a weird edge. We tried using the software 'Garage Band' on the Apple Mac to play around with the different sounds. By using this we then decided that the random strums of the guitar and the sounds from the piano wasn't what we were looking for as it didn't relate to the children being innocent. This is when we decided that we should use a nursery rhyme such as 'Three Blind Mice' or 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'. We searched around for a simple yet effective nursery rhyme that we could use and found 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. I liked this a lot and started bringing it together using the different instruments on Garage Band. When putting the sounds together we made the start of the song sound normal and sweet like a child, but then the longer the song plays, the sound turns twisted and becomes out of tune and began to be played clumsily. This was played in time with our film as it starts to echo and turns twisted as the doll is seen on the clip.This creates suspense which is exactly what we wanted.

Our First Attempt At Filming.

This is our first attempt at filming and putting the main parts together on iMovie. We tried to get as many shots as possible from different angles and positions so that when it came to editing, we would have a range of shots to chose from.

My group and I understand and have spoken about the fact that it doesn't look very natural for two teenage girls to be skipping down the path with a doll and playing in the park. We thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that the doll could be affecting the way the girls act which would add to the weirdness to the sequence. We would possibly show this by showing the parents discussing how childish the girls have been acting since the doll appeared or a news report of a doll that has had an odd affect to teenagers.

A soundtrack still needs to be added which I think will make the clip a lot different. Currently, a few ambient sounds are included but I think we need some eerie, unnatural sounds playing when the doll is shown and a low humming sound in the background. The idea of using a low humming sound was inspired by my research done earlier for the film opening of 'Let Me In'.

Location #1 for our final film opening

In our storyboard, we have decided to use the park for one of our locations as this comes across as innocent and unaware. 

The picture below shows where we will be shooting a tracking shot of the car pulling up.

We are planning on using this path for where the two girls skip up towards the gate with the doll in their hand.

This is an establishing shot of the park which we are planning to be show as they enter it.

The see-saw will be shown with the two girls playing happily on it as the doll sits beside the tree.

An over the shoulder shot will be used at this point to see the unawareness and happiness in the girl's face.

These swings will be shown when the girls run from the see-saw to play on something else. 

Final Film Opening Story Board

This is our storyboard for our final film opening. We have had many ideas to make the movie come together, all of which we have tried to include.